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Tart Crust, No Rolling Pin Necessary

Last week, I put out a request for more “Ask Casey” topics on the GFS Facebook page, and among the responses was a common refrain: “Why am I crap at rolling out pie crusts?” Good thing I had this post in the hopper.

I’ve done pie crust tutorials here (using the Alton Brown roll-out method) and on ReadyMade (using the King Arthur Flour roll-out method), but today, you can put that rolling pin away. You won’t need it. The French and their all-knowing pastry ways have your back with this one, and they call it pâte sucrée.
Its literal translation is “sweetened paste,” but pâte sucrée is a dough, no doubt. Only it’s a shape-shifting kind of dough. Half sugar cookie, half pie crust, it’s moldable but bakes up light and tender. It’s pliant yet structured, soft yet crumbly. And yes, you really can roll it out with nothing more than your fingers.

I came late to the cult of pâte sucrée, preferring to do things the hard way, as always. (See also: the homemade junk food obsession, using reusable plates and silverware at all my parties instead of going the disposable route, driving in slightly convoluted patterns to avoid making left turns across busy streets—what? I’m like Zoolander!) But stubbornness and perfectionism can co-exist even in a dough as simple as this one.

Pâte sucrée comes together in less than 5 minutes when you’ve got a food processor—just a little longer if you’re doing everything manually. After that, it’s time to let your fingers do the walking, pushing and flattening the dough against the bottom and sides of a tart pan. It can be as rustic or as refined as you want, but either way, the dough won’t fight back. I added a little whole wheat flour to my version as a halfhearted concession to health, but you can do it with all-white flour if that’s what happens to be in your pantry.

After a quick chill and a 15-minute bake, you’ve got a ready-to-go tart that’s just begging for a sweet filling. What to pour into it? Oh, how about:

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